My 55g tank thread

[vest0830]

I thought I would go ahead and make one of these threads on my tank. I will always update it, keep it informative, pics, you know how these threads go. Heres mine
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Starting off, I purchased the tank from some people leaving the island. (June '06) Got a good deal on it, great components, and a nice size tank. The stand was already built (and built very nice), lights were great, overall a nice set-up.

I bought it with knowing that the sump had to be rebuilt, Jeff said bring the sump over, along with some beer and I will make it work.
After a few small battles with it, its working great.

While the sump was being rebuilt, Jeff had advised me to fiberglass the bottom of the tank stand, where the sump would sit. I put about 3 layers of fiberglass resin on it, its solid, and water stands on it. Makes for cleaning up mess' very easy. I dont have any pictures of this (which I could have swore that I took pics as I was doing it, but cant find them)...but I will do this to every tank that I ever build for anyone.

The sump was ready to go in:
Thanks again Jeff!

Pics of the sump/fuge about to be put in the stand:

I have my old skool euro reef skimmer doing the job. Its a euroreef ES-3, Euroreef's first gen skimmer. This thing is pulling out lots of crap, im very happy with it. I soon plan to do the valve/gate mod to it, get rid of the riser pipe.

The fuge was just set up yesterday, so nothing is in it except a ball of chaeto, also curtiosy of Jeff. To our knowledge, there are only about 5 people in Okinawa with this stuff. Lighting it is a set of (3) T-5 10k lights. (also thanks to Jeff)
The 'fuge' side of the sump:

My lighting consists of (2) 250w 14k halides using icecap ballasts to fire them. Im very happy with these lights, however I have been debating on adding some acitic T-5's and moonlight's to the set-up to make a full daytime pattern. I might go all out and do the full lunar cycle set-up, not sure yet. BTW, if my blinds are open you can see my tank clear as day from outside at night. :smokin:

 

[vest0830]

*this forum has it enabled so I cant post that many pics in a thread. how retarded is that???* here is the rest of the thread I had spent an hour and a half working on...


Onto a few pics of the tank:
this is the first day I had it running, July 24, 2006:

Here it is today, Sept 16, 2006:

tang we just picked up (thanks again Jason!) Hes doin very well, has a TON of charactor, and hes lovin life in the tank. I could sit all day and watch him.

my clowns, Also, thanks again Jason, he give me a pair of clowns, they instantly took to the carpet anenome, so now I have 3 ocellaris clowns in my anenome. I also have one tomato clown (ive had him a LONG time) and I also have a clarkii clown which hosts in my lather.

I dont have to many pics of my coral, my camera isnt quite working like it should right now, but that gives me every reason to continue to update this thread. Here is a full shot of the tank:
(you can sorta see the surface water movement I have going on, its preety decent IMO)

So heres a rundown of my tank:
Tank: 55g (47Lx17Wx16D)
Sump/Fuge: is holding about 15g
Skimmer: Euroreef ES-3
Overflow: lifereef dual overflow
Return Pump: Mag 5
Powerhead Tunze 6000 W/7091 single controller
Lighting: 2, 250w 14k halide lights, ice cap ballasts

livestock:
(Im not one to know all of the specis, etc. etc, so bare with me. Im working on learning everything)

Coral
Various clams, I have 10 clams.
Various Zoo's, many different colors, pinks, reds, green, baby blue...
6 lathers, various sizes
many various mushrooms, pink, blue, orange...
2 xyenia
ricorda cup (just picked up)

Fish/inverts
Carpet anenome
pink BTA
3 ocellaris (all 3 hosting in the carpet anenome, 2 of them are a true pair)
1 tomato hosting in the BTA
1 clarkii clown hosting in a lather
1 blue tang
1 orange shoulder tang (I believe)
1 purple angel fish
1 marine bata
2 sexy shrimp
1 skunk cleaner
1 peppermint shrimp (hes about to get the boot)
1 blue starfish
various snails, crabs

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Issues i've had with the tank:
-Heat! Ahh! I should probably invest in a chiller as my temps stay in check, but a little higher than I would like it to be. The sump helped alot, brough the temps down a little. A pair of icecap fans hopefully will be ordered by the end of the month

-this bryopsis algae! I am getting ahold of this stuff finally. The new tang has gone to town eatin this stuff when there is no nori in the tank for him to munch on. Aqua Culture also hooked me up with some snails, and I believe they are making a dent in this stuff also. From what I have read, the bryopsis is from too many nutrients in the tank, so ive also been overskimming these past few days, trying to pull a little more out than I usally run the skimmer. I think im starting to get the upper hand on this stuff finally.

-sandbed and the tunze! it took me a little while to get the tunze dialed in just right. It moved alot of sand, and stirred up quite a mess. Yes, I got quite a bit of algae from it, and that may have started my bryopsis issue, but I had to play around with it to get it just right. I now have it under control.


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I need to tank everyone on here for helping me out! Everyone offers great advise, and is always willing to lend a hand at any min. Its great to know you can always call someone for help!

 

[jeffb3t]

Lookin great Frank! Can't wait to see it in person.

 

[jasalmanza]

Nice work! I'll be starting a thread also for my rebuild.

 

[Donstuprich]

Insert emote of smilie eating popcorn here --->

 

[vest0830]

thanks
if I could only rid that crap on the back glass, I will be much happier. (that stuff is the bryopsis)

 

[hot4teacher]

I had that stuff on my nanocube. I thought it was from what you already mentioned, a heavy bioload. I got rid of mine by turning off the lights for a week and scraping it off. Since you have corals, that's out of the question.

Lately I've been running carbon (1cup) in a phosban reactor and that GREATLY reduced the algae that was growing on the glass of my tank. Befiore it was 2-3 days before I had to use a mag float, now I can go a week or more.

Dana

 

[vest0830]

Mine is almost all gone. I would say 80% of it is gone.

Thats interesting that you talk about the carbon, I put one little bag of carbon in the bubble trap, at the same time that my problem started to go down. I have seen the tang eat the stuff and now that the tang is eating it, my angel and the OS tang thought they needed to much on it also, so they are picking at it.

Mine is almost all gone, and i would expect it to me 95% gone probably by tommorow evening.

As I was telling Mike last night, the easiest way and aobut the only way to manually pick it off is when doing a water change, have your siphon right next to your razor blade or whatever your using to scrape the stuff off.

 

[jeffb3t]

So what is the status of the bryopsis? Is it gone yet?

 

[vest0830]

I have won the battle with the bryopsis. I have 2 small patches left. I consider that a victory, considering my tank was covered in the **** 3 weeks ago.

 

[Donstuprich]

just make sure you keep up with the maintenance for the carbon. It's a pain because of maintenance requirements to combat nitrates, but i love running carbon. Makes the water really polished.

 

[Donstuprich]

Did those snails help out alot?

 

[vest0830]

I hardly ever see the snails. ACO told me though that they are nocturnal so I would rarely see them. Something in my tank has done a great job cleaning it up...

if it stays like this (clean wise) I will be very happy.

 

[vest0830]

Ok, so ive slacked more than enough on this thread, I thought I would update it a little bit. Few issues ive had with it, this tunze loves to move the sandbed no matter how I put it. Sucks, but its life in the Vest's aquarium. :lol:

We are about to move and im going to totally re-aquascape the entire thing. Im going to try to get some new rock here shortly. lots of brand and 'slate' style rock. The tang loves to hide out and do his thing in the rocks, so im going to give him some more area to play. (I love that fish BTW, every tank should have one IMO)

My stock list consists of:
~Bubble coral (which was dam near dead when I brought it home, now its about half a fist size)
~2 large lathers, and 4 smaller ones
~around 5 large clams
~more zoos that I know what to do with, but I need more
~an anenome I wish would die cause I hate it but its growing the most out of all of them
~1 carpet anenome thats doubled in size since ive gotten it, a mated pair of clowns host in it, and there is a bastard clown that swims through it when the other 2 arent on duty watching it
~1 pink tip BTA. very beautiful, I wish it would grow larger though...and a tomato hosts in it. Ive had the tomato clown since the beginning of my saltwater enduevers. he was TINY when we brought him home for the first time
~huge hammer coral which I bought last weekend. it continues to open more and more everday
~2 feather dusters
~many mushrooms, started out about a half a dozen or so, and they have gone nuts. I like them, but they are starting to over run stuff.
~my sun coral which is beautiful. Also, ive always been told that suncorals are a night time coral. Mine opens around 7pm or so and stays open until the lights go off at 9:15pm. I love it. $10 well spent.

I think thats about it coral/invert wise. My fish stock hasnt changed.
im in search of some new lights, T-5's. I need to order them here real soon!

Here are some recent pics. Some are a little blury and some have a glare in them, sorry about that.

looks like the sunabe seawall :rollface:

my new pride and joy

overall shot:

 

[jeffb3t]

Wow looks nice. Glad to see your tank is doing great.

 

[vest0830]

yeah, it really has been doing pretty good. I had a problem with some algae a few months ago, that got knocked out in a matter of hours when I put the tang in there...I keep the back wall 'dirty' so the tang pretty much always has something to graze on. looking at the tank, you kinda get drawn away from the nastiness of the backwall I shoudl say, but its about the only downside to my tank IMO. that and the stupid tunze that moves the sandbed up front, but ive givin up on that a long time ago.

 

[jasalmanza]

great job !!!

 

[teto_78]

Very nice..... what camera do you have....?

 

[vest0830]

Nikon D50

 

[teto_78]

sweet, I own the D70, and what kind of sand is that......?